Confirmation

The reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace.  For, as CCC explains, “by the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit.  Hence, they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed (CCC 1285). Without Confirmation and Eucharist, Baptism is certainly valid and efficacious, but Christian initiation remains incomplete. When Confirmation is celebrated separately from Baptism, as is the case in the Roman Rite, the Liturgy of Confirmation begins with the renewal of baptismal promises and the profession of faith by the confirmands.  This clearly shows that Confirmation follows Baptism.  When adults are baptized, they immediately receive Confirmation and participate in the Eucharist (CCC 1298).

In Scripture we do not find explicit text pointing to the institution of confirmation. St. Thomas Aquinas explains, “Christ instituted this sacrament not by bestowing, but by promising it, according to John 16:7: ‘If I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you, but if I go, I will send Him to you’” (ST III, q.72, a.1, ad1). The reason why Christ promised the sacrament instead of instituting it was that the Holy Spirit could only be bestowed upon the disciples after the resurrection and Ascension.

The graces of confirmation can be summed up thus: “Confirmation perfects Baptismal grace; it is the sacrament which gives the Holy Spirit in order to root us more deeply in the divine filiation, incorporate us more firmly into Christ, strengthen our bond with the Church, associate us more closely with her mission, and help us bear witness to the Christian faith in words accompanied by deeds” (CCC 1316).